[December, 
766 Fog Lore. 
plants and on the hair of animals, and are connected by im- 
perceptible gradations with drizzling rain. On the other 
hand, the fogs of last winter were scantily charged with 
moisture, and many persons who found their breathing 
affected obtained relief by letting the steam of boiling water 
escape into the air of their rooms. A difficult question is the 
distribution of fog— the capricious manner in which it 
follows certain boundaries with little apparent reference to 
the direction of the wind or the character of the soil. Why 
should Tottenham-court Road and the surrounding district be 
often fairly clear, when to the east, south, west, and north 
the metropolis is plunged in darkness ? Another peculiarity 
is the recent extension of fog to outlying localities which 
till lately were exempt from the nuisance. A friend who has 
lived at Sewardstone for about twenty years tells us that he 
never experienced anything worthy the name of a fog pre- 
vious to the last two seasons. 
But the fogs of all our large cities may be described, so far 
as their worst features are concerned, as man-made evils. 
Natural fogs, with the exception of some exceptional cases 
apparently of volcanic origin, are white, and even when 
densest transmit a considerable proportion of light. The 
yellow or black fogs of London consist largely of the pro- 
duces of the combustion of coal— in a word, they are in great 
part coal smoke, which in certain states of the atmosphere 
cannotescape. This fadt is plainly provedbythepeculiarsmell 
which such fogs impart to the hair, the beard, and to woollen 
clothing, and by the taste which they leave upon the lips. 
Hence we may see good reasons why the London fogs 
should be more severe than they formerly were and worse 
than those of any other city. In this “ province covered with 
houses ” there is a larger quantity of coal consumed than in 
any other district of equal size in the world. Nowhere else 
is there along with abundant coal consumption such a large 
tradt where the free sweep of the wind is checked to such an 
extent by an endless array of streets. 
Further, the very plan of the entire mass — London in the 
rational though not in the legal sense of the word— is as 
though purposely contrived to give fulll scope to fog and to 
prevent the free circulation of air. We have very few broad 
straight streets of any great length. The city is not cut up 
into quarters by boulevards and avenues.* Even when the 
wind is high it occasions sudden gusts and eddies instead of 
* Suppose an earthquake— a first shock having given the alarm and further 
concussions momentarily expected. How few and far between are the localities 
wheie the jublic could take reluge 1 
